


Disorder

by Xephonia



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Reality, Expect Juudai to suffer, Gen, Hurt, Not soulshipping either, Really not spiritshipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 20:04:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5756449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xephonia/pseuds/Xephonia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing seemed to be normal anymore, but then again nothing had ever been normal in Juudai's life. [Genfic] [post-canon] [DISCONTINUED.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea came when I finally decided that I can't write romantic relationships, so I went for a friendship fic.

The word 'boring' did not exist in Juudai's world. Whenever the possibility of things becoming boring had even started to faintly show up, it had been shattered by a new problem that was to be solved by him, the wielder of the Gentle Darkness.

An outsider may wonder whether Juudai was happy with this or not, but for anyone who knew Juudai, the answer was obvious: There was no other option for Juudai except for solving these problems, so it was just routine for him. He didn't mind... unless it endangered his friends.

And it often did.

He'd spent less than a half year saving people all around the world from various dangerous things - well, more or less dangerous, depending on how dangerous the spirit of a Feral Imp in a garden could be considered.

After those six months of what Juudai referred to "peacefully doing his work", things started to get dangerous again. He'd went back in time with a guy from the future, defeated Paradox and returned to his own time... and since the other cards that Paradox had stolen before had returned, Juudai was assuming that Johan's Rainbow Dragon had, too.

Sure, he could go and visit Johan to check if Rainbow Dragon had really returned. But that would be a problem because of two reasons: He was a magnet for trouble and teleporting was exhausting.

Oh yeah, teleporting. Juudai had discovered that ability in one of his long talks with Yubel about the past. They'd spent hours talking about it. Whenever Yubel mentioned something from his past life, his memory returned more. By now, he knew the most important things... for example, how to wield his darkness effectively.

Teleporting, though, although it was one of his most useful abilities, was something Juudai disliked doing too often. For some reason, he always felt dizzy afterwards. Yubel had told him that the feeling would get less if he just teleported more often, but he was plain lazy about it. He preferred trains and airplanes because he was more excited about seeing everything along his way to different countries.

And so, visiting Johan was not an option at all. Especially with the amount of people who wanted Juudai dead. There was Darkness, the Light of Destruction, any possible allies Paradox might have had, people who craved to have his power... and not to forget, anyone he'd dominated when he had been Haou. That was something he didn't want to remember.

Juudai was well aware that being antisocial to avoid hurting people again did not work. The time when Darkness had almost achieved its goal had proven him that. If it hadn't been for Johan, Juudai wouldn't have made it. This made Juudai wonder if he should visit Johan after all. He should make his decision soon, he knew that. But he didn't even know where in Norway Johan actually lived! But knowing how good of a duelist Johan was, it wouldn't be hard to find him. Despite that issue about visiting Johan, Juudai was strangely content.

After having rediscovered his passion for dueling thanks to Yuugi-san, the first thing he'd wanted to do was dueling for fun with his friends. But fate had other plans for him... in fact, fate was having other plans for him since half a year now.

So when everything around him was strangely calm, Juudai couldn't get around wondering why nobody had tried to come and kill him yet. Why did nobody ask him for help and why did nobody challenge him to a duel? Was it possible that he was actually having free time right now?

It had seemed like an impossibility, but right now he was sitting on a rooftop of a skyscraper in the streets of London, eating onigiri. It didn't taste as good as it did in Japan, but it filled his stomach and it was edible.

If Juudai ever had even small amounts of excessive weight at Duel Academia despite his hyperactive nature before his third year, that weight sure was gone by now. He'd learnt that eating was a privilege that he sometimes simply did not have. And so, enjoying the cold breeze in the night, he considered eating onigiri on this rooftop the best thing that could've been possible.

Juudai finished his onigiri and decided to lie down, using his Osiris Red jacket as a pillow. Closing his eyes, he reached into his inner mind.

Yubel?

No reply. Not good. While Yubel did sometimes disappear to look around a little, she usually replied when he used their mental link. And also, Yubel always told him when she was gone for a bit. She didn't, this time.

So much about having peace. Juudai knew that he'd been too careless if he'd let Yubel disappear. He felt her presence, though, as his and her souls were fused after all. For a bit, he felt reminded of that duel against Darkness where it had tried to take Yubel away from him. Bad memories.

Juudai got into a sitting position and looked around, his eyes turning golden as he used the power of the Gentle Darkness to see clearly in the night. No Yubel around. No danger around. Strange.

"Neos."

All it took was his name and Neos appeared - in his spirit form - next to Juudai. "I can't find her, either."

Like all of Juudai's monsters, Neos had noticed what was going on and why Juudai was worried. Neos also knew why he had been summoned. His connection with Yubel through their Fusion, Neos Wiseman, must have led Juudai to the conclusion that it would be the best option to ask Neos first.

But Neos didn't know more than Juudai did.

"Kuri, kuri!" Hane Kuriboh appeared next to Juudai, flapping his wings excitedly. Juudai and Neos understood its language and listened to the "Kuri!" it made, explaining what it knew.

"So, you're saying Yubel is in something that is similar to another dimension, but still entirely different?" Juudai asked to confirm if he had understood his partner right.

"Kuri!" Hane Kuriboh did something that was similar to a nod before disappearing with Neos.

Juudai looked around, wondering what to do. Something like this had never happened before. "Yubel... where are you?"

A feeling of despair was about to reach Juudai's heart when suddenly, he felt a warm familiar touch on his shoulder. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he turned around to face Yubel who had put one of her clawed hands on his shoulder.

"You shouldn't worry," she said, giving Juudai a smile. "I do have something to talk to you about, though. Something very urgent." And with that, Yubel's smile turned into a rather sad expression.

Juudai didn't need to think much because the tone of Yubel's voice already gave away what this would be about. "Is it about saving the world?"

"Yes, it is." She seemed to hesitate to continue speaking as she looked at the stars, trying to avoid Juudai's gaze now.

"Does it involve any of my friends?" Juudai knew that Yubel only hesitated to tell him about things when she knew that it would bother him to know the truth. But that made him desire to know even more. He had to save whoever was in danger.

Yubel nodded slowly, looking at Juudai again. "It involves everyone, but mostly Johan Andersen and... you, Juudai." She removed her hand from his shoulder.

"Me?!" Usually, evil entities targeted either Juudai or his friends. The only forces who dared to attack both were those that he had already defeated at Duel Academia: The Light of Destruction, Darkness and... Yubel, actually. "So, what exactly is going on and who is our enemy?" Juudai chewed on his lip.

"Well, I don't really know if we even have an enemy," Yubel admitted. Knowing that she needed to elaborate on that for Juudai to understand, she continued: "Let me start from the beginning."

Before she could actually start, Juudai - rude as he was - interrupted her: "Just show me."

Yubel had forgotten about that. She usually didn't, but the urgency of the situation made her less attentive than usual, limiting her ability to realize that it would be faster to just show Juudai images of what she'd seen.

With that, Yubel disappeared back into Juudai's body. Juudai closed his eyes, reaching out into his inner mind that took a visible form as a dark room filled with nothing but a few doors and some mirrors. The mirrors were his links to other people... and the doors, while they weren't really a maze, tended to change every day. At least some of them.

Juudai gazed at one specific mirror: The one that connected him to Johan. It was strangely glowing. "Johan...," he murmured as he reluctantly left the room through the door that led to his and Yubel's shared room - it was the room where their link was the strongest. In fact, here they were able to read each other's thoughts with ease.

Yubel had already arrived in the room before Juudai had. The wall in front of them started to project Yubel's memories of what she had seen, and what she had witnessed did really surprise Juudai.

On the wall were images of Juudai, but something was odd about them - he didn't wear his Osiris Red jacket. In fact, the clothes he wore on those images could have easily been mistaken for a cosplay.

"In any other situation, I would make a joke about this," Juudai said. "But there's more to it than that, isn't-" He was interrupted by an image that he hadn't wanted to see.

Johan. Johan and him, again in those strange clothes. On some of those projections, everything was normal, they were friends messing around together and that was fine... but some images displayed how they went after other activities.

"Yubel?" Juudai had a pained expression as he tried to not look at that, for it felt wrong in every possible way. It was like making fun of his and Johan's friendship. Why the hell would he even think about kissing Johan?

"Yes, Juudai, I've really seen this," Yubel answered Juudai's question as she had read his mind already. She showed him a few other images as she kept speaking: "Apparently, reality has split. You know that there are twelve dimensions, right? For some reason, there are other realities with different rules. That hasn't been like that before. It was only after the fight with Paradox when I had noticed."

"That was a week ago," Juudai muttered as he tried to not get angry. "Why didn't you tell me?" He really didn't understand Yubel right now. They shared a soul. Why wouldn't she tell him?

"I wanted to find out if it was my fault, first." Yubel's voice was unusually soft as a trace of guilt reflected in her heterochromatic eyes. "I'm still not sure."

"Isn't it possible that everything that has happened simply has drawn the attention of another evil?" Juudai mused while staring at the images intently. "In the background. Is that Shou?"

Yubel nodded. "In fact, most of your friends exist in the other realities." She sighed as she showed him an image of Asuka and Fubuki dressed in clothes that could have been from the middle ages. "But somehow, I don't."

Juudai raised an eyebrow. "You don't?"

"I've been there. In all of these alternate realities, I don't exist. I thought it could be simply that no spirits exist at all, however... Hane Kuriboh, the Gem Beasts and all of your heroes do exist."

Obviously, Juudai was not pleased by this. If all alternate realities had no Yubel in them, this meant that she was probably related to problem, albeit unwillingly. He sighed. "There's a piece missing in your explanation. Why is this a problem for our reality?"

"What do you think will happen if one of your alternate reality counterparts dies or gives in to the Light of Destruction?" Yubel asked, pointing at the projection of Juudai who snuck out of something that seemed like a castle. "I've found out that I can visit any point in time in those realities as long as no magic has interfered with it. So for the last week, I've been helping that Juudai whenever you were asleep. But for some reason, I can't visit earlier points in time in his world, anymore."

"That's way too confusing," Juudai muttered as he narrowed his eyes. "So, you're saying that in that Juudai's world, the Light of Destruction is trying to destroy him and it might affect me?" It sounded logical. At least it sounded as logical as anything related to the forces that determined this universe could sound. While he wasn't so pleased that Yubel did things behind his back - well technically she didn't because the other Juudai knew - he understood why she did.

"Exactly." Yubel nodded.

"So what do we do?" Not like Juudai expected Yubel to know, but he could ask at least.

"We could go there and we try to save that other Juudai?"

"Not a bad idea. How do we get there?"

Yubel pointed at the projection in front of them. "Walk in."

That made sense to Juudai. Yubel was connected to him, after all. So maybe that connection made her capable of entering dimensions where other versions of Juudai were present? He wasn't good at thinking about stuff, so he just accepted it as he walked towards the projection of the castle that the other Juudai had just left...

And he bumped against the projection as if it was a regular wall.

"Ouch!" Juudai rubbed his head.

Yubel had walked halfway through when she had heard Juudai. She turned around and walked back into the room to see Juudai on the floor. However, she did not understand why he could not travel through realities.

"That's strange," Yubel said, thinking about it as she sighed. "What could be... oh."

She changed the projection, causing another image to appear - the standard of technology seemed to be similar to their reality's and a city was seen.

Juudai had stood up already and gazed at Yubel. "Why couldn't I get through?"

"The reality we tried to enter had two versions of you," Yubel explained with a slightly nervous smile. "I forgot to mention that. It's the only reality I've seen where you and Haou are split into two persons, so maybe a reality where there's just you works."

Juudai didn't even bother questioning it. Nothing surprised him, anymore. Really, nothing. Well, maybe something like a new summoning method for Duel Monsters would. But he doubted that there would be anything beyond the Synchro that he had seen thanks to Yusei... although he still didn't actually know what those cards worked like. Realizing he was getting distracted, Juudai shook his head slightly.

He sighed, carefully reaching towards the wall... and his arm passed through it. "Oh, I can get in there." It felt strange and Juudai felt Yubel's presence fading - something he did not like at all. He pulled back his arm, looking at Yubel who hadn't moved. "Why aren't you coming?"

"Well, you see..." Yubel didn't seem to want to say it. It was the kind of thing one had to do but didn't want to. "I have to help out in the other reality. But if you want, I can come along here." She didn't want to make it seem like other Juudai was more important. It was just that she was really worried about her Juudai. Ensuring his safety by protecting the other Juudai made sense to her.

"Go," Juudai said with a grin. "Make sure he doesn't die. If he doesn't have the powers of Haou, he won't stand a chance, so he probably needs you more than I do right now." He didn't mind because he could understand Yubel without any words. He knew how she felt.

Having made his decision, Juudai waved once before he walked through the projection, saying "See you later!" as he traveled through realities.

While he couldn't feel Yubel's presence anymore, he knew she was always there. Somehow, he also noticed that nobody would be able to feed Pharaoh since his body was lying... on a rooftop. He'd have to fix that soon. But first, time to explore another reality and see if he could help himself and his friends.

And with that, Juudai's world became even more exciting than before.


	2. Chapter 2

Headache.

Extremely agonizing headache.

It was questionable how, when he wasn't even in his physical body, he could have a headache, let alone a tangible body, but that was it.

Somehow, when he'd traveled realities, Juudai must have lost consciousness along the way. He didn't know how that had happened, his headache limited his capability of thinking properly. Only a few things were in immediate reach for his thoughts. One of them was Yubel.

He couldn't feel her. Even less than when he had searched for her on the rooftop. Where was Yubel? Maybe it was because he'd traveled realities. However, he didn't feel anything of her. Not a bit.

Now he started to feel his surroundings. Warm, soft. A bed? Cushions? Juudai couldn't believe his luck. He had landed on a bed!

But then he realized something had to be wrong about that. A spark of logic in his head reminded him that even with his extraordinary luck, there was no way he'd land on a warm bed with a cover over him. It didn't even make sense. The cover, that was.

The third thing he'd noticed was Hane Kuriboh. He heard it, fighting with... no way!

Juudai opened his eyes immediately, trying to get up, but he sank back into the soft pillows when he realized he had no strength to get up.

"Ah, you're finally awake," he heard an all too familiar voice say. A familiar voice to which belonged a pair of emerald eyes.

Johan.

Probably not the Johan he knew, but if Yubel was right, that Johan was probably friends with another version of himself around here. He'd need to come up with a backstory if Johan was going to ask him anything.

And there Hane Kuriboh was next to Johan, fighting with Ruby Carbuncle, a display of their affection. Of course, both of them were in spirit form.

Juudai took a few moments to process the information that he had just received. He took a moment to realize that he apparently was in this reality's Johan's room. The fact that he still needed a good excuse for looking exactly like this reality's Juudai was still in the back of his mind, but the headache and the thirst didn't make it easy to think.

Just as if he'd been reading Juudai's mind, Johan tossed a bottle of water in Juudai's direction. The latter caught it with ease, drinking half of it in one go.

"You are not Jaden, I can tell that by your clothing," Johan said. Wait... Jaden? Did he have a different name here? Johan didn't leave him time as he continued: "And Winged Kuriboh spilled half of your secret, anyway. Was it a secret, Juudai?" He gave Juudai the smile that he'd always give him. Hane Kuriboh was Winged Kuriboh here? That would take a while to get used to. The headache increased.

Juudai, taking another sip of that bottle, looked at Johan. "I meant to keep it a secret, yes. But Hane Kuriboh seemed to have other plans." Hane Kuriboh gave him a sheepish "Kuri!" before it flew out of the room, followed by Ruby.

"Well, he didn't mean to spill it, he was just excited to see Ruby again," Johan said with a chuckle, looking at Juudai's clothes. "My name is Jesse. Jesse Anderson."

"Jesse," Juudai repeated. He wasn't used to the name. It sounded... American? He didn't know. "So, what exactly did Hane Kuriboh spill, Jesse?" The name sounded so odd.

At the sound of 'Hane Kuriboh', Jesse smiled. Of course he did, because the names for everything were different here. "Kind of... everything and nothing," he said, brushing a strand of teal hair out of the way. "He said you're from another world... another reality. And that you're here to try to help me... and Jaden, too, if I understood it right."

"That's pretty much it," Juudai confirmed, sitting now. The headache was driving him mad, though. "It might be rude, but, do you have some painkillers?"

Another toss. Another catch. Jesse seemed to have been prepared for that.

"Thanks," Juudai said, swallowing the pill with a sip of water. "So, how and where did I land?" He didn't think that he just conveniently landed in Jesse's home.

"On the street," Jesse replied, pointing out of the window. "Around ten minutes from here. Jaden had just left from here and when I saw you on the ground in those clothes, I knew you weren't him, but I wanted to help." Juudai still didn't know what was wrong with his clothes. He looked out of the window. So many huge buildings. They reminded him of his field spell, Skyscraper. He hasn't used it in a long time.

"What's the problem about my clothes?" Juudai asked, tilting his head as he looked at Jesse. Jesse was dressed the way that Johan would definitely dress in his free time - a shirt with frills and some normal pants.

"Well, to put it in a nutshell: In Domino City, we have two kinds of people: More-or-less wealthy people and... very poor people. There's nothing in-between. So now you probably know what I mean." Suddenly, Jesse had a sad expression. It was the kind of expression that Johan had when he was worried for Juudai. So with that, Juudai immediately understood why Jesse was sad.

"That means Jaden is not as lucky as you, I assume?" Juudai asked, being horribly blunt about it. He didn't want to spend too much time on the topic, the Society of Light and Darkness could be here. In fact, if Yubel had sent him here, it must mean that they were up to something here.

A nod was all that Jesse gave him. Of course. That was just another proof of how strong the friendship between Jaden and Jesse had to be if it extended over those boundaries. Well, they were the same people, just from another reality. A smile showed up on Juudai's face and he felt his headache decrease slowly. Again, Juudai questioned why the painkillers actually worked. But wait... he remembered the images he'd seen. The images of him and Johan doing those things that definitely weren't friendship.

"Jesse? What kind of connection do you have to Jaden?" Juudai asked, carefully choosing his words to not make it sound all too strange. It didn't seem to work as Jesse laughed.

"He's my best friend," Jesse said, smiling. "We met in an alley when we were trying to find a place where no one could hear us talking to our spirits. That's how we got to know each other. After all, most people don't believe in spirits." He took out another bottle for himself, taking a few sips before closing it.

Juudai sighed in relief as he wasn't pleased with the idea of him and Johan having romantic affection for each other. He was glad that in this realiy, that wasn't the case. That nightmare would come and haunt him, though, if he kept saving various versions of himself.

Juudai wasn't a homophobe. In fact, he couldn't care less for gender and all that meant nothing to him. I was just that he wanted to preserve the innocence of his and Johan's friendship, for it was something that he'd always cherish, even though they didn't see each other very often. And so, sitting in Jesse's room felt strangely good, almost as if he had come home after a long journey. But he knew that in fact, this was just the beginning of his new journey.

"Why is Johan not here?" Jesse asked as he cocked his head to the side. "At least Winged Kuriboh said his name was Johan." Jesse seemed to have problems with the same for he looked like he didn't like it at all. Juudai could understand that, he didn't like the sound of 'Jaden' either.

"Good question," Juudai said, sighing. "To be honest, I still don't know if I want to visit him. I haven't seen him since half a year." The indecisiveness in his eyes was clearly visible.

Jesse sat down next to him on the bed. "You know, you shouldn't worry if you get him into trouble. He'd probably want to help you and you'll make him sad if you just try avoiding him." In that moment, Juudai was sure that those were words that Jesse had always wanted to tell Jaden.

"Thanks, Jesse," Juudai smiled a little and noticed that his headache had significantly lost its intensity. That meant he could talk about the serious matters now. "Do you know something called "Society of Light"? An organization led by a man called Takuma Saiou?"

"I know of a Society of Light," Jesse responded with a serious expression. "Although in this world, the man is called Sartorius. By the way, he has a sister called Sarina. She's helping him. They are trying to take over the city... in fact, they are trying to take over the government with their sect. Nobody takes them seriously right now, though. They have a weird god that they call 'Light of Destruction' and all." That explanation sounded exactly like what Juudai had expected it to sound like. Obviously, this was exactly the situation Duel Academia had been in. So now all there was left to know was how far the Society had come already.

Juudai tried to find a way to ask a question that didn't involve too many names because the names were different anyway. "Are they brainwashing people?" It was not exactly what he had wanted to ask, it was better than nothing.

"Yes, kind of," Jesse said, rubbing his neck. "The name thing is getting difficult for you, isn't it? Maybe we should go over the names before we talk about the rest." He chuckled softly.

Happy that Jesse was so attentive, Juudai nodded. He hoped that Jesse would have a solution for that. Probably Jesse did have a solution for that.

And Juudai was not disappointed as Jesse took out his cellphone - that, by the way, looked really similar to the PDA from Duel Academia that he used to have - and showed him a picture.

A picture of everyone. Literally.

There was Edo, Asuka, Manjoume, Shou, Ryou... and basically all the others. Even Daitokuji-sensei was there! Juudai smiled as he looked at them. He also noticed Jesse and Jaden on the picture, both of them trying to not laugh, apparently.

Jesse started pointing at the persons on the picture, telling Juudai all those unfamiliar-sounding names for persons he'd known for years. "That's Aster Phoenix, there is Chazz Princeton, the small one with the glasses is Syrus Truesdale, the one that looks like a dinosaur is Tyranno Hassleberry..." He took quite a while to name them all.

Juudai repeated them a few times over so he would remember them. It was fairly easy - some names sounded really horrible, but he could deal with it. Not like he was gonna stay here for long.

"So, uhm, did Manjou- I mean, did Chazz get defeated in a duel by Saiou already?" Juudai asked, finally able to ask the question he'd wanted to ask.

"A duel? What do you mean? Do people in your world solve problems by fencing?" In Jesse's emerald eyes, a huge amount of confusion was being reflected.

And then Juudai realized why these alternate realities were dangerous. Without dueling, what could he have possibly done? And what could Jaden in this world possibly do?

"In my world, we solve problems with a... card game." Juudai suddenly realized how stupid that sounded. He had never really thought about it. Was a card game really the way to determine the fate of the universe? He slightly shook his head at the thought. In his reality, it apparently was because Darkness had dueled him, in fact. The Light of Destruction hadn't been that kind. In fact, Juudai had needed Neos' help to force the Light to duel. Perhaps, in this world where Duel Monsters didn't even exist, the Light was stronger than anything Juudai had ever expected. Slowly, he took out his deck, wordlessly showing Jesse the card of Hane Kuriboh.

Jesse immediately understood, albeit he still had a surprised expression. "So spirits come from these cards, huh? Here, they just follow us around. Anyway, let me answer your question. Chazz was taken to the headquarters of the Society. We don't know what happened there, but when he came back, he was a different person. After Alexis tried to save Chazz, she got brainwashed, too." The events seemed to play out exactly the same way they had in Duel Academia. What was left now were the keys to SORA... Juudai was honestly worried about his other self, now.

Suddenly, the loud ringing of a doorbell ripped Juudai out of his thoughts. Immediately, Jesse stood up, running out of the room. Juudai heard Jesse's feet hurrying down the stairs and he decided to follow him.

On the way, Juudai noticed that the house didn't seem to have any inhabitants aside from Jesse. It didn't surprise him. As far as he knew, Johan didn't have any family aside from the Gem Beasts.

"Jaden!"

"No time for explanations, pal, just close that door and we talk inside."

"Okay!"

Juudai watched as Jesse talked to Jaden. It was only when Jesse closed the door that Juudai had the time to look at his other self's clothing, if one could call it clothing at all. It was partially torn and it looked like it hadn't been washed for a long time.

And there was Hane... Winged Kuriboh, flapping its wings when it spotted Juudai. Jaden turned to look to the stairs where Juudai stood.

Grinning sheepishly, Juudai did his signature gesture as a greeting. "Hello."

It had taken quite a while to explain everything to Jaden. He had been way too excited about seeing an older version of himself from another reality, so he hadn't really concentrated on the topic at all.

The first thing Juudai had noticed was Jaden's slang. Lots of it. Juudai himself did speak with a lot of slang words, but Jaden took the whole thing to a new level. Juudai didn't know whether he liked it or not, but the cheerful nature of his other self made him smile.

Another thing that was in Juudai's mind was that he could've sworn that he'd heard someone calling out to him. But he'd figured it was his imagination because of the lack of sleep. Maybe even because of the stress.

"So, Jaden, why did you come here so suddenly?" Jesse asked as he ate some fried shrimp. Apparently, he'd made some in advance in case Jaden would visit. Well prepared indeed. They were sitting at a round table in the living room.

Juudai questioned whether eating here was a good idea. He wasn't in his physical body and it confused him enough that he was tangible. He didn't want to try eating anything. He figured that he'd have to come here, for real, to do anything in case his advice wouldn't be enough. Yubel hadn't thought about the fact that other rules applied for her and Juudai as she was a spirit and he wasn't. A sigh escaped his lips as he realized that looking for a way to get here in his physical body would be hard.

"Sartorius gave me that key," Jaden explained, holding the small key out to the other two. "I don't know what it is for, though. Anyway, suddenly people from the Society started to chase me because of it. I really don't know what that guy is thinking."

"I don't know, either," Jesse said with a shrug. "Juudai, do you-"

"It's a satellite key," Juudai interrupted Jesse. Looking at Jaden now, he continued: "A satellite named SORA that can destroy this entire planet. Sartorius is being brainwashed by the Light of Destruction. He gave you that key so he couldn't activate it under the brainwashing. Edo... I mean, Aster has the other key." At least now they weren't completely oblivious to the danger, anymore.

Jaden and Jesse stared at Juudai with a shocked expression as the latter kept his calm behavior.

"And what can we do about that?" Jaden asked, recovering from the shock quicker than Jesse did. He was much like Juudai had been in his second year, but that wasn't even surprising. What surprised Juudai more was the fact that Jesse and Jaden accepted the existence of alternate realities like it was an everyday thing.

"Well, what means of solving conflicts do you have?" Juudai responded with a question. He assumed there were none.

Jaden took a moment before he opened his mouth and closed it again.

"There are persons who use guns and knives," Jesse muttered as he looked at the table. "Jaden and I don't like that, though. That's why all we have is the spirits that protect us. It isn't enough against the Society of Light, though." Apparently having lost his appetite, he pushed his plate over to Jaden, offering him the last of his fried shrimp. The latter happily accepted it and ate it immediately.

Typical.

But that information was a problem. Juudai knew that he would have to do something about this - there was no way that Jaden and Jesse could handle it on their own. Perhaps he was able to use his powers here even without his physical body? He tried to channel the darkness into his hand to create a sphere of dark energy, but unlike what he was used to, nothing happened. Probably part of his energy was stored in his body so he couldn't use his powers. That was proof, actually. He'd have to find a way to move his physical body here.

"I want to help you," Juudai slowly said as he looked at Jaden and Jesse. "But I need to find out how to get my body here. Right now, it's lying on a rooftop, and I'd rather have it here to access all of my powers, to be honest."

"You have powers? What kind of?" Jaden could've been mistaken for a puppy with that excited behaviour, but Juudai knew of the danger that came with power.

"No power that you would ever desire to have, trust me," Juudai muttered.

_Perhaps the power of my counterpart from your reality can help you to get here physically._

Juudai tried to find the source of the deep voice, only to realize that he heard it in his head. Jaden and Jesse had heard it, too, apparently, because they looked to the direction of the window.

Rainbow Dragon. One eye of it, at least. Apparently there was no space for it in the house, so it was around the house.

"Rainbow Dragon," Juudai said. "It's nice to see you. So, you think that my reality's Rainbow Dragon could help?" He took a sip of water.

_Yes, but you would need to take Johan with you. Only he is the chosen one of the Crystal Beasts._

Juudai let out a long sigh. He didn't even bother thinking too much about the term 'Crystal Beasts' - different reality, different names. Then he looked towards Jesse who gave him a mild smile.

"Don't worry, Juudai. I told you, he'd definitely want it that way. And now go," Jesse said with a grin.

Jaden gave Juudai his signature gesture. "Exactly what he said, man. Go home and when you return, bring that other Jesse with you!"

Honestly, Juudai didn't feel good about leaving so soon, yet he knew he had no other choice but to get his physical body into this reality to save it from being destroyed. Again, he faintly heard something calling his name, but that calling felt painful, so he blocked it out. Somehow, when he tried to think about the calling's origin, he lost track of his thoughts, even forgetting what he had thought about in the first place.

Juudai sighed once more. "Alright. I'll be gone now." Instinctively, he created a door in front of him. He didn't bother questioning why he could do that because it probably just was the rule of traveling realities with your soul only. Something felt strange about the door, though. The darkness surrounding it wasn't like the darkness he was used to. Again, Juudai decided to ignore that because nothing was ordinary, lately. In fact, nothing had ever been ordinary.

He waved his hand as a goodbye. "See you soon." Opening the door, he looked back one more time before he walked through... and stood in his and Yubel's shared room in their inner mind.

It was strange. It felt less connected than before. In fact, Juudai could've sworn that the room had even shrunk. Perhaps it was because Yubel was still in another dimension?

Juudai didn't exactly know and somehow, the thought faded from his mind again. He briefly wondered why he hadn't fainted again, but he welcomed it as a gift as he decided to leave his inner mind, waking up on that rooftop in London once more.

Standing up, he looked at the sky. The sun was about to rise soon. Apparently, time flowed differently in other realities. Great.

And so, Juudai's initial hesitation about teleporting had to face the urgency of the situation: He had to reach Johan. As soon as possible.

"Juudai." Neos had appeared next to Juudai, floating. "I can locate Rainbow Dragon. If we combine our powers, you should be able to teleport directly in front of Johan's house."

Gulping, Juudai nodded. "Alright." He petted Pharaoh who had been sleeping next to his body before, carefully putting the cat into his backpack. Juudai wasn't even surprised when Pharaoh didn't wake up.

From the ground, he picked up his Osiris Red jacket and put it on. He sure wouldn't forget that.

His eyes flashed golden as the all too familiar darkness enveloped him. He also felt Neos' darkness. While it was similar to his own darkness, it still was different. A good kind of 'different'. Concentrating on his desire to teleport, he felt himself fall.

That feeling of 'falling' always came whenever he teleported. At first, it had been scary, but by now, Juudai considered it to be the most enjoyable part of teleporting. It felt like he was free, free of all responsibilities.

It did not last long.

Within a second, Juudai stood in front of an apartment building that looked kind of ordinary. A look at the street signs next to him was enough to know that he indeed was in Norway now.

Dizziness came over him, but Neos' mental support and his own resolve made him go on. He really hated the feeling, though.

Juudai walked towards the entrance of the building, reading the names of the inhabitants that were next to their doorbells. His eyes stopped at the name 'Andersen'.

Taking one deep breath, Juudai pressed the button twice. A quick glance at his cell phone told him that it was 6 o'clock in the morning. He immediately wanted to hit himself for not having thought about that, but then again he'd have had to do it anyway. Not only Jesse's and Jaden's lives depended on that, but also his own and Johan's lives.

The signal sound that would indicate that he could open the door now didn't come. Juudai wondered if Johan was out of town or simply didn't hear the bell.

Suddenly, the door in front of him opened and Juudai faced Johan's happy emerald eyes. In fact, Johan didn't seem to be surprised by Juudai's appearance at all.

"Nice to see you again, Juudai." Johan smiled and Juudai faintly noticed that Johan was fully clothed and very much awake. Had he not slept?

"You seem kind of tired, come in," Johan continued, dragging Juudai into the building and leading him to his apartment.

Juudai knew he shouldn't be tired, but with all the dizziness and the lack of sleep, he was very tired indeed. He sighed, trying to concentrate somehow, yet the only thing he noticed was the fact that Johan's apartment mainly featured blue colors.

"Wanna sleep, first?" Johan asked as if he read Juudai's mind. Chuckling, he continued: "You never took it well when you hadn't slept enough." He pointed towards the bedroom.

Juudai shook his head. "I can't, I've got something urgent to talk to you about." He knew he wouldn't be able to do much in his current state, but he could try, right?

Apparently, Johan had other plans for him. "Remember the last time you tried doing something while you were in a bad condition? Yeah, exactly, it didn't go well." He didn't plan to take 'No' for an answer when it came to whether Juudai would sleep or not.

Juudai opened his mouth to say something but just then, Johan yawned. "And I don't think I'll be able to listen, either. I've been awake for 24 hours or something like that." Well, he had a point.

And with that, it was time for Juudai's first sleepover at his best friend's place. In fact, the first sleepover that Juudai ever had. When he tried to think about why Johan had been awake for so long, he realized he couldn't manage to think properly anyway, and so he let Johan guide him to the bed. Juudai let Pharaoh out of his backpack before lying down and enjoying the softness of that bed, wondering if every bed in Norway was like that.

"I'll sleep in the living room, no worries," Johan simply said, smiling. "Good night, Juudai." With that, he turned to leave.

"Good night, Johan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The English dub names will be used to refer to alternate reality counterparts.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been six months since Juudai had last seen Johan.

Unless you counted his alternate reality counterpart Jesse. Then it had been a few minutes.

But of course, Jesse was not his Johan and Juudai knew that all too well. Of course Juudai hadd felt nostalgic when he'd seen Jesse yesterday, yet... it was not the same. When he'd finally seen Johan again, it truly had felt like coming home - although he'd never been at Johan's house before.

He didn't know what time it was when he woke up, but it sure felt like he'd slept for a long time since he was full of energy. Slowly, he opened his opened, adjusting to the sunlight that was illuminating the room. He somewhat prefered his darkness, but that wasn't a choice when it was daytime.

And then there was one really specific, bothersome feeling that was in the back of Juudai's mind: he'd forgotten something. That was not unusual. But... he had forgotten something important. Very important.

What did I forget?

Juudai tried his best to think about it, yet the thoughts slipped away from his mind. Whenever he thought he'd gotten a hold of a thought, it escaped him again, leading to a blank in his mind that felt almost... painful.

Something inside him told him to ignore the pain and keep going on, yet another told him not to. He didn't know which voice in his head to trust: Both of them were his own.

_Don't give up._

Rainbow Dragon? Of course. Of course Rainbow Dragon would be here. Probably, just like at Jesse's house, he was outside, unable to fit in the apartment. And in a way, for Juudai, Rainbow Dragon was an irreplaceable part of his connection to Johan, so when Juudai hadd heard its voice, he focused all of his mental power on remembering what he'd forgotten.

It was one of the two most important persons.

Yubel.

An expression of shock replaced anything else in Juudai's face. How could he have forgotten? Was it because they were traveling dimensions? Why did it take so long for him to remember?

Juudai felt like he'd forgotten something else, but he was already out of mental resources. As he sighed, his awareness of having forgotten anything in the first place faded. A part of Juudai tried to cling to that awareness, yet it held no result.

Forgetting was inevitable.

"Those blue walls sure fit Johan," Juudai muttered as he rubbed his eyes, noticing that Rainbow Dragon eyed him from the window. "Huh? Rainbow Dragon! You're here! You made it back after Paradox was defeated!"

"Haven't we just talked?" Rainbow Dragon's voice was both calm and dominant.

"I'm sure it's the first time I hear it," Juudai said with a mild, yet uneasy smile. Was he bad at remembering things? No way, was there? He shoved the thought away.

Again, he heard the annoying calling in his head, but this time, his darkness carefully blacked it out for him.

Rainbow Dragon didn't have many facial expression and it's way of speaking didn't change either, yet somehow Juudai heard 'insecurity' in it the second time it spoke.

"It apparently was my imagination." With that, the dragon moved away from the window.

Looking around, Juudai spotted a pair of fresh clothes on the desk on the opposite site of the room. With swift movements, he got up and found a note on top of the clothes.

I'll wake you around 3 PM. Feel free to change into these clothes. They are from before I went to North Academia, so they are about your size. - Johan

Johan had written so formally that it made Juudai chuckle. Juudai looked around, trying to find an alarm clock or anything that would tell him what time it was. Soon, he spotted one on a small table next to the bed.

14:52. About time.

A smell entered Juudai's nose. A familiar smell that he'd smelled yesterday already.

Fried shrimp.

Juudai still regretted passing on the Fried Shrimp at Jesse's home so he quickly, yet carefully put his deckholder on the desk as he changed into Johan's clothes. After throwing his actual clothes - including his Osiris Red jacket - on Johan's bed, he put on his deck holder and left the room... only to bump into Johan.

"Just in time," Johan said, carefully balancing two plates of fried shrimp in his hands as he smiled. "I'm surprised you woke up this early."

"Since when are you awake?" Juudai asked, snatching one of the plates that Johan was carrying.

Johan chuckled. "I woke up around two hours ago. By the way, earlier you looked like you were having some really bad dreams. Something wrong?"

Juudai couldn't remember such a thing... or could he? Images that went into his consciousness too fast to recognize overwhelmed his senses for a second. Then he was hearing the calling again. Whatever that was, Juudai wanted it to stop calling his name. Again, Juudai's darkness helped before the headache kicked in. He sighed in relief.

Sitting down next to Johan in the living room, Juudai answered Johan's question. "Somehow yes, yet I don't know what. Right now I'm really just hoping that these are the side effects of traveling into different realities."

"Traveling into different realities? Sounds like you have a lot to tell me about." Johan didn't seem surprised. But how could he have been surprised, anyway? He'd seen what the forces that surround Juudai are capable of.

Juudai could've sworn that Johan had just sighed, yet he didn't know why Johan would do that. "Johan? What about you? Are you alright?"

To answer that, Johan pointed to the window where Rainbow Dragon's tail was clearly visible. "Rainbow Dragon says he's forgotten something but he doesn't know what. Sounds similar to you not knowing what you've dreamt about. By the way, where is Yubel?" While Johan hadn't seen her in a while and still felt uneasy about her and Juudai's fusion, he could understand why they had fused. And he accepted it.

"Who?" Juudai looked at Johan with a confused expression, then he gasped, realizing what he'd just asked. "O-Of course, Yubel... she's currently in another reality, I think." Had he forgotten about Yubel? Moreover, didn't he think this once already? Juudai felt his headache returning... when suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Johan had a calming presence which Juudai really appreciated. "Don't worry," Johan said, giving Juudai a mild smile. "Don't push yourself."

Seeing that Juudai had eaten all of his fried shrimp already, Johan pushed his plate over to Juudai. "You can have the rest."

"Just like Jesse," Juudai commented as he ate Johan's remaining fried shrimp. The more he ate of it, the more he realized what a great cook Johan was. And suddenly, Juudai realized something: He wasn't forgetting Yubel. He felt like he should have, but he did not. He glanced at Johan. Was he responsible for that?

"Who is Jesse?" Johan asked with an interested expression. "You definitely have to tell me about everything that has happened these last six months."

Juudai couldn't put his finger on it, but something in Johan's emerald eyes just told him that his teal-haired friend was thinking about something really important. "Wait. You haven't told me about everything that bothers you yet, have you?"

"You know me too well."

"We are best friends, after all."

"That's true."

"So tell me."

"You should be able to talk to Yubel, no matter what distance, because your souls are fused." Johan slowly said, trying to not word it too harshly, yet it did not work. He sighed. "Has she not tried to talk to you?"

"No, she-" Juudai suddenly fell silent. He'd heard a voice calling out to him multiple times. Was that...? No, it couldn't have been, right? But with his memory in the state that it was, Juudai didn't know. "I'm not sure. Ever since we started talking, my memory is getting more stable, but it's still foggy. It's really the side effects from traveling there, I guess... I heard something calling my name, but it gave me headaches, so my own darkness blocked it out."

"Show me your deck." Johan's didn't seem to plan on taking 'No' for an answer.

Reluctantly, Juudai reached for his deck holder. He somewhat felt the need to protect his deck, but the genuine worry in Johan's eyes made Juudai capable of ignoring that. When he touched his deck, he felt it pulse. It made no sense. Juudai gave it to Johan.

Immediately, Johan searched through the cards, apparently knowing exactly what he was looking for. "Why is Yubel missing from your deck?"

"WHAT?!" Panicking, Juudai ripped his deck out of Johan's deck and searched for Yubel's card, finding... nothing. Nothing except for a suspiciously pulsing and dark-looking Super Polymerization card. "Is... is it reacting to her disappearance?"

Johan nodded. "That might be possible. You know, I am, in all honesty, too normal to actually help with an issue like that, but I can try to help you find the card. When did you last have her card?" That was the basic question when somebody lost something, and although Johan was sure that Juudai hadn't just 'lost' Yubel's card, the question could help them determine where it had been stolen.

"I haven't looked at my deck for a while now, but the last time I actually talked to Yubel was in London. Before I went to an alternate reality for the first time," Juudai explained, not bothering to explain why he had been in London. In fact, he'd tell Johan later anyway. Then he realized. "Wait... my body was unconscious while I was in the other reality."

"There you got it," Johan said as he nodded. "Someone must have stolen her card. With a reason." Meanwhile, Juudai put his deck back into his deck holder.

"But what do I do now, Johan?!" Juudai's panic returned. "I can barely hold on to my memories of her, I can't even remember our shared past anymore! In fact, I only remember her because... because of you." There was no way he could drag Johan into this. Whoever the enemy was - if they could steal Yubel's card, they could also steal the Gem Beasts. Even if their cards were probably safe as long as they moved their physical bodies to the other realities... Juudai didn't want to risk it.

"Well, then it's obvious I'm going to come along for whatever reality travel you will do," Johan said with a smirk. He was well aware of the danger. But just like one year ago, he didn't mind getting in danger for Juudai - they were best friends, after all.

Juudai opened his mouth, but Johan shook his head. "Don't give me your 'But back then'. I know you want to say it. I really don't care about what you did back then, though. I don't think you should regret what you've done. I am the only one who should... for letting Yubel control me."

It wasn't like he'd really 'let her' control him, anyway. He had been unconscious back then and Yubel had threatened to harm the Gem Beasts until he'd given up.

Once she'd taken control over his body, she'd said something like 'I won't let you take my beloved Juudai away from me again' and sealed him into the Rainbow Dark Dragon card. After that, there had been no real interaction between him and Yubel. Not even after she had fused with Juudai.

The main reason for that had been the Gem Beasts. They despised her with a passion that Johan had never knew they possessed. He had wanted to fix that, but there hadn't been any opportunity for it.

"It's dangerous, Johan." Juudai sighed as he looked at his feet to evade Johan's gaze. "If you get in trouble, you don't have the darkness to save you like I do. I doubt I can protect you." Yet he knew that he had to take Johan along. Rainbow Dragon had said it. Johan was the Gem Beasts' only chosen one. Only he could use Rainbow Dragon's power.

"Well, start from the beginning so I actually understand what's going on." Johan had decided that the best approach would be an explanation of everything. "Start from when you left Duel Academia."

Juudai smiled and he slowly felt that his awareness of Yubel's disappearance was getting less, yet not disappearing. While he couldn't find a reason for that, he welcomed that change since it made talking about other things easier. "Well... before I left, I dueled with Yuugi-san in some kind of time bubble. I lost but it was really, really fun. After that, I traveled around, discovering teleportation... honestly, I prefer trains and planes still. And then there were some people I helped out. Like that one time when there was a Feral Imp in the garden of an old couple and they could actually see it and..."

Johan listened to Juudai's stories of various countries and people with joy - he had to chuckle whenever Juudai talked about how long it took him to learn how to speak English, but that might've been because Johan was fluent in English, Norwegian and Japanese.

One hour had passed and Juudai was his usual, excited self again. As Johan hated to see his best friend in a sad or troubled state, he was happy to see Juudai smiling and laughing as he told the funniest and most exciting stories.

"And well... then that guy, Paradox, stole your Rainbow Dragon and Hell Kaiser's Cyber End Dragon to try murdering Pegasus J. Crawford to change the future," said Juudai as he had a rather annoyed expression for a second. "But Yuugi-san and Yusei-san did some time travel with me and we could defeat Paradox. And yeah, after that I continued my trip through Europe until I was in London."

Johan got up to get some coke from the fridge and Juudai waited until his friend was done doing that. Juudai enjoyed the temperature of the liquid - it was cold in Norway, but a cold drink was always good nonetheless.

"Question," Johan said after he took a sip from his coke. "Why didn't you come here for your birthday? It was a bit more than a month ago, wasn't it?" It was October now. Juudai's birthday was August 31st. Johan smirked when he saw the way Juudai tried to avoid answering.

"I forgot it," Juudai admitted with a sigh. Realizing that that sentence might be misunderstood, he added, "I forgot my birthday. I was too busy." It was not the first time that he'd forgotten - in fact, it was easy to forget things like that while attending a boarding school. But now that Juudai had left school, nothing had changed at all.

Johan laughed. "Oh, that's really just like you. To be honest, I would've forgotten mine, too, if the Gem Beasts hadn't reminded me." As if she'd heard him, Ruby Carbuncle appeared on Johan shoulder, making the sounds she usually made.

Juudai smiled when he saw the small Gem Beast, but he quickly turned his attention back to Johan. "June 11th, wasn't it?" They had talked about the birthday matter back then, but just as Juudai had forgotten his own birthday, he had forgotten Johan's, too.

"Yeah," Johan said, apparently looking at the scenery outside the window. "I really missed Duel Academia these last six months." To Juudai's relief, Johan wasn't mad at all.

"I wish I could say the same," Juudai muttered. Of course he couldn't. If he still was at Duel Academia, he'd drag his friends into even more trouble. At least that's what he thought.

Johan smiled at Juudai. "You could if you just accepted that friends are there for each other. But I really don't expect you to - I'm glad enough you're here." It didn't matter to him that Juudai took a half year to visit him. He was just happy that he could spend time with his best friend... and, unknown to Johan himself, that trait of him was the one that Juudai appreciated the most. "So, what's this whole business about alternate realities?"

"Well, Y... Yubel has found out that somehow, reality has split. And in these alternate realities, alternate versions of you, me and the others are fighting against the Light of Destruction. And since Yubel suspected that any harm that happens to an alternate version of me might affect the actual me... so that's why I was traveling between realities: To help you and myself out," Juudai explained. It was clear that he had trouble saying Yubel's name, but apparently the repetition of her name helped him with saying it. He rubbed his neck for a bit.

Johan's eyes almost sparkled in excitement. "That must have been so cool! What versions of us have you seen so far?" Of course he knew that the situation was far more serious than he could imagine, but that didn't prevent him from asking.

"I only was in one other reality so far," said Juudai with a mild smile. "But I've seen images of others. I saw myself as a prince in one of them." He thought about it for a moment before he decided to tell Johan what else he'd seen. "I also saw an image of an alternate reality where you and me were in a relationship. That was weird."

At that moment, Johan burst out laughing. The idea seemed so completely absurd that he almost couldn't believe it, but the seriousness in Juudai's face told him otherwise... which didn't make it less funny. "So... you weren't kidding, right?"

Juudai slowly shook his head. "I wasn't."

"Oh well," Johan said, still grinning. "Other realities, other rules, I guess." The idea seemed as odd to him as it seemed to Juudai.

"And well, the reality I was in... they didn't have Duel Monsters there, but the spirits were around anyway. Most people and monsters had strange names, I must say," Juudai said, chuckling when he thought about the names. "The you from that world was called Jesse, the me from there was called Jaden and the Gem Beasts were called the Crystal Beasts, just to name a few."

"Were they any different from us?" Johan was curious as to what would be different in an alternate reality... if there was anything different at all. He doubted it, but he still asked.

"Actually, no," Juudai confirmed Johan's thoughts. "Jaden speaks with a bit too much slang, but Jesse is just like you are. Oh and, to get back to the point, the alternate reality's Rainbow Dragon was the one who told me to visit you. You see, I entered that alternate reality without my physical body, so I couldn't use my darkness to help them. Apparently, Rainbow Dragon can get my physical power in there... but it would require you to come along, and I really don't know if that's-"

"Juudai," Johan interrupted him. "Be realistic. You know I'd always come along. And stop doubting things so much, it's not something the Juudai I know would do." After what had happened in the Dark World, Juudai had been different. Johan knew that, but he didn't like it at all. Of course, Johan had not been himself, either, but for him, it was slightly different because he had the Gem Beasts to comfort him. Sure, Juudai had Yubel, but she was related to the whole problem to begin with.

Juudai tried to not sigh. Instead, he just nodded.

"Should we take some food on our journey? I don't think we will ever have the time to go home again before we are done solving this whole alternate reality thing," Johan proposed, apparently having no problem with that. He didn't wait for an answer as he walked to his room to get his own and Juudai's backpack. He put a bottle of water, a coke, several snacks and some clothes in each of the backpacks - additionally, he also put his duel disk into his backpack, he knew he'd need it and he also knew that Juudai's duel disk was in his backpack already. Of course he also didn't forget to stuff Juudai's Osiris Red jacket into his backpack.

"So, what do we do about Pharaoh and Daitokuji-sensei?" Johan asked as he tossed Juudai's backpack towards him while entering the room. "We could take them along, but we could also give them to my neighbour - she's a friendly old lady."

Juudai caught his backpack, looking inside with a grin. "You made good preparations. About Daitokuji-sensei and Pharaoh... where are they, even?"

Johan whistled as he reached under the couch that Juudai was sitting on. When Johan sat up again, he had Pharaoh in his arms. "Pharaoh was sleeping under the couch."

In that moment, Pharaoh opened his mouth and the familiar orb of light that was Daitokuji-sensei came out of it. The light turned into its human spirit form.

"I think it's better if you leave us at Johan's neighbour's house, Juudai-kun," Daitokuji-sensei said with a smile. "The spirits of the dead don't like travels like these, it's way harder for us than for monster spirits. We will wait for you."

Juudai nodded. "Thanks, Daitokuji-sensei. Take care." With that, Daitokuji-sensei turned into an orb of light again and was immediately swallowed by Pharaoh.

Quickly, Johan went to the neighbour, explained that he unexpectedly had to leave for a period of time that he didn't know himself - the old lady just said "Oh, the youth... it's fine, I like having company." (of course, in Norwegian) - and he left Pharaoh there with some money for cat food.

"She really accepted it like that?" Juudai was surprised that things worked that easily around here. He had patiently waited for Johan's return and he'd watched as Hane Kuriboh and Ruby had played.

"She did." Johan smiled. "Ever since I moved in here, she had already realized that something was strange about me. Apparently, she can actually see spirits." It had been really convenient for Johan, indeed.

Juudai smiled back. "Lucky you... By the way, Johan. Why were you awake for 24 hours?" He had just remembered that and now he really wanted to know. What had kept Johan awake?

"Well, to be honest..." Johan grinned sheepishly. "I somewhat knew you were coming, I don't know how and why. That's why I stayed awake, waiting for you." He'd always had a strange connection to Juudai, starting from when he'd first met him. He didn't know what connected them, but it's what made them best friends, so he didn't mind at all.

"I wonder why I am not surprised," said Juudai, chuckling. "Well, let's go." It was easier for Juudai to accept help when it had been forced onto him. Since Johan didn't take a "No" for an answer when it came to offering help, Juudai had less trouble accepting it. "Let's save Jesse and Jaden... and also Yubel."

They put their backpacks and jackets on as they went outside and Johan locked the door.

Holding up Rainbow Dragon's card, Johan was enveloped in beautiful light and in that light, Juudai could see each color of a rainbow.

Taking Juudai's hand, Johan shouted, "Ultimate Gem Lord, Rainbow Dragon! Become the bridge between realities!"

The majestic Rainbow Dragon appeared around them, drawing energy from Juudai to determine the location of their travel. Juudai let it happen and guided Rainbow Dragon's power, but he felt like something was off - still, he blamed it on the odd nature of reality traveling.

Then, both Juudai and Johan shone as they vanished from Norway - they had managed to do it... more or less.

Juudai didn't recognize the place they reappeared in.


	4. Chapter 4

Reality traveling with Rainbow Dragon was comfortable. Landing in the completely wrong spot was not. Juudai felt something in his chest sting, yet he couldn't find out what or why.

He rubbed his eyes. He had done that three times within the last sixty seconds.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dragon had disappeared already.

"We ended up in the wrong place, right?" Johan pointed out what Juudai had tried to avoid saying, yet there was a calm atmosphere around the teal-haired boy, almost as if he knew what to do.

"We did," Juudai said, nodding. Two problems: First, they needed to help Jesse and Jaden. Second, they needed to help their alternate selves in this reality, too. He decided it was the better choice to do the latter first.

They were standing on a huge white platform with a human sized bottle and some human sized cake on it. Juudai's face had confusion written all over it while Johan chuckled.

"What's so funny about that?" Juudai snapped at Johan, but he immediately regretted it. He knew he should take things easier, but with the current situation, that was incredibly hard to do.

"Have you ever read any European fairytales?" Johan asked, sitting down as he looked at the strange room they were in. He knew what Juudai's answer would be, but it was still fun to hear it.

"No, I've just heard of some," Juudai admitted as he sat down next to Johan. "What's that topic, all of a sudden?" He was looking around, but no matter how much he did, the colors, the size and literally everything in that room made no sense to him.

"We're in Wonderland, most likely," Johan explained, glancing at the bottle and the cake. "The tale 'Alice in Wonderland' tells the story of Alice who gets lost in Wonderland after she follows the White Rabbit down its rabbit hole."

Juudai started to take an interest in the cake that had a sign with the words "EAT ME" on it. "So, does she get back home in the end?" He broke off a part of the cake, but Johan took it from his hands immediately.

"Do not eat the cake, trust me, it's a bad idea," Johan simply said as he put the hand-sized piece of cake into his backpack. He smirked knowingly, but he knew he should carry on explaining. "She wakes up and realizes it's all a dream. Anyway. Never drink or eat anything in Wonderland. Your body's size changes depending on what you eat. The cake makes you grow. The liquid inside the bottle makes you shrink. Simple as that."

"So why don't we want to grow? We are way too small as we are now!" Juudai pointed out, pouting. Actually, he really just wanted to try shrinking and growing like that.

"Our size is just right," Johan replied as he pointed towards a small door below. "Let's get down from here and check if the door is locked this time. It will lead to a rather dangerous place, though." Taking out his duel disk, he looked at Juudai. "You can materialize them, right?"

Juudai nodded while taking out his own duel disk. It definitely was easier to get down that way. "Neos!" He placed the card in the monster zone, and thus Neos appeared.

"Gem Beast Sapphire Pegasus!" Johan shouted as he 'played' the card, as much as this could still be considered playing, anyway. Immediately, it materialized next to Johan, ready to help.

Juudai wondered how Sapphire Pegasus had materialized without him using his darkness to help it, but he assumed that the darkness had done that on its own with no need for him to actually say or do anything.

The two of them were carried to the ground by their Duel Spirits as a rabbit-eared human passed by them, running. Juudai blinked twice before realizing who he'd just seen.

"Oh god, it's starting already," Juudai muttered as he looked at that strange version of himself. He knew that there were alternate versions of himself. He hadn't known they could have white rabbit ears and... wait a moment, white rabbit ears? Didn't Johan just tell him about a white rabbit?

Juudai and Johan were too far from Juudai's lookalike to actually see much of him, but while they were running there, they did notice that he was looking for something.

"Probably he has the key," Johan presumed. Then he looked like he'd remembered something, giving Juudai a mild smile. "You know, I think I know who the 'Alice' of this story is."

"Huh? Who?" Oblivious as he sometimes was, Juudai didn't realize what Johan meant.

"Never mind," Johan simply shook his head. They had reached the Juudai-lookalike who was still trying to find whatever he had been looking for. "Juudai?"

The rabbit-eared boy didn't react.

"Jaden?" Juudai simply tried the one other name that would make sense in this situation. Maybe those names were something universal?

"No time for talking, pal, can't find the damn key!" The reply was pretty sudden and with that, Juudai's theory had been proven right.

Johan seemed as unhappy as Juudai was about Jaden's slang. Were all alternate selves of Juudai going to talk like that? At least Jaden spoke Japanese.

"Maybe we can help you?" Johan proposed, knowing that the chances of Jaden getting his head cut off in this world were really, really high. At least if the Queen of Hearts was the same as in the fairy tale.

"How can you help me if you ain't even someone I know?!" Jaden said, apparently getting more and more impatient. He hadn't looked even once at Juudai and Johan.

"Well, he knows me and I'm technically you," Juudai had decided to shorten that conversation a little. Apparently, he didn't like the situation as it was because Johan was the only one who knew what was actually going on. "We can break the door in, you know."

That made Jaden listen and he looked away from his bag that he had been searching in. Looking at Juudai and Johan, his eyes widened. "Are you my twin or something, bro?"

"It wouldn't be all too surprising in a mad world like this, would it?" Johan answered instead, smiling. In fact, he had fun with this. He'd always taken a liking to fairy tales. Mainly because nobody used to believe the things he'd actually seen ever since he was a child: spirits.

Jaden shook his head, grinning. "You're right. Then I assume you are not Jesse, either. Are you from here? You sure seem to be." The movements his rabbit ears made while he spoke were distracting Johan a little, so it took him a moment to answer.

"Not exactly, I am just... familiar with the stories from this place, and no, I am not Jesse" Johan replied, rubbing his neck as he had problems with the wording of that sentence. He didn't want to say too much.

"Guys, I'd really love to spend some quality time with you two, but I really gotta go now! Can you break that door in, pal?" Jaden smirked and pointing towards the door.

Juudai gave his alternate self the same smirk, immediately summoning Neos again. "Neos!" Neos immediately reacted, using his signature attack to blast the door away. Basically, there was no door there anymore after the smoke had lifted.

"Alright! Thanks again, man! Gotta go before Queen Alexis and King Chazz decide to cut my head off!" With that, Jaden rushed through the hole that used to be a door.

"Alexis is Asuka and Chazz is Manjoume," Juudai said, knowing that he hadn't explained all of the names to Johan. Mentally, he made a note to ask Chazz about how he managed to get Alexis to agree to be his wife.

"Oh, well, seems they'll be our 'enemies' in here, the Queen of Hearts is known to be cruel in the book," Johan said with a chuckle. He actually assumed that the "cutting Jaden's head off" was metaphorical. Not like the alternate selves of their friends could be so different, right?

Juudai and Johan finally took a look through the giant hole to see... a forest. A huge forest.

"I hope you know about directions, Johan," Juudai joked as he was sure that he'd get lost if he was here alone. Right now, he was really happy that Johan was with him. He'd missed the company of a good friend for too long now. But something else was missing... but what was that, again? Probably not important.

"I actually don't," Johan admitted, sheepishly gazing at his feet. He looked back to the table that they had come from. "I don't have a map, you know... but we are close to the Duchess' place. Moreover... we did not see Alice yet."

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that, about knowing who 'Alice' is. So, who is it?" Juudai had a curious expression and Johan had no doubt that he was really as oblivious as expected.

"Think logically," Johan said, looking at the trees in front of him. "Apparently, these alternate realities have you and me in it. The only logical conclusion is that we arrived here after Alice did. After Jesse did, that is. I can imagine myself jumping into a rabbit hole while following you. " It only made sense. He knew himself pretty well and if he saw a rabbit-eared boy jump down a rabbit hole, he would be sure to follow him immediately. Especially if it was one as noticeable as Juudai.

Juudai blinked twice. "Thinking about it, it does sound like something you'd do, Johan..." Some memories entered Juudai's mind. How Johan and him had met. How Johan had stayed behind in the other dimension to save everyone. How he'd come to Dark World to save Johan. From that point on, the memories were just painful. But wasn't something wrong with this? "Wouldn't it be me who follows you to a dangerous place rather than the other way around? I mean... you know."

"You might be right about that...," Johan muttered. Sure, that was a matter of the past, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt him. He didn't want to remember, he'd just met his best friend after a half year again, after all.

Juudai started walking. "Come on, let's go."

And thus, their adventures in Wonderland started.

"Never eat anything here," Johan harshly reminded Juudai just before the latter could bite into a giant mushroom.

Juudai pouted immediately. "Come on, I just want to know what giant mushrooms taste like!" In fact, Juudai didn't want to admit it, but he was excited about this place. It felt like going on an adventure with Johan - and that's what it was, indeed - but in reality, it was far more serious than "just an adventure".

"You should listen to Johan, Juudai-kun," a very familiar voice said. Juudai tried to find its source but he didn't see Daitokuji-sensei anywhere. He did see Pharaoh, though. Lying in the grass and grinning. Wait, grinning...?

"Oh, so you're this Wonderland's Cheshire Cat, huh," Johan commented in joy, looking at Pharaoh. His knowledge of fairy tales had never been this useful before. Still, there was one thing that bothered him: why was an alternate reality based on a fairy tale? It didn't sound logical at all. But then again, what meanining did logic have, after everything that had happened so far?

"I am," Pharaoh said with Daitokuji-sensei's voice. If that was even possible, the cat's grin widened. "And I am referred to as 'Amnael' here. The name should be familiar to you, Juudai-kun."

"Indeed, it is. So, what's the deal with the Cheshire Cat? Someone care to explain?" Juudai was slightly annoyed by now. It was good that Johan knew literally everything about this place. It was clearly not good that nobody ever explained the details to Juudai.

"Well, the Cheshire Cat knows pretty much everything and likes giving riddles to people and all that," Johan explained with a smile. "It's a popular character, just like the White Rabbit, the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and... well, of course, Alice." He liked the tale a lot. The whole nature of the tale was amusing to him. Probably Juudai wouldn't share his opinion if he ever decided to read the book, though. After all, Juudai didn't like reading unless it was absolutely necessary.

"An accurate description," Amnael said. The fact that he was in a cat's body was confusing to Juudai, but he accepted it nonetheless. It wasn't much different from what he was used to.

"So, Amnael," Johan began speaking, smiling as he sat down in the grass in front of the cat. "Do you want to tell us where and who Alice is?" Of course he was aware that the answer would be a riddle, but a riddle was better than no knowledge at all. He had the feeling that Amnael knew about the alternate reality matter, after all, he knew their names.

"Asking for Alice's whereabouts and identity

Is a futile thing to do, for there are plenty;

There is more than one Alice in this gone mad Wonderland,

But unless you find the key-holding Alice, the dream will never end.

There's four Alices, yet there's only three -

Thinking out of the ordinary is the key," Amnael said, the cat's grin not even fading once while it talked.

"Oh, that's really a riddle," Juudai said, thinking about the riddle. Multiple Alices, but the number of them... Three or four? He sighed. A complicated riddle for a complicated world.

"You might want to meet Aster Phoenix, Zane Truesdale and Syrus Truesdale since you are here already," Amnael said. The cat disappeared and reappeared to their right. "If you go this way, you reach the March Hare's Manor. That's where they currently are." Without waiting, the cat - Amnael - disappeared, the grin being the last thing to fade.

"Well, that was exciting," Johan said, walking to the direction that Amnael had sat in. Juudai quickly followed him and he couldn't avoid wondering if the others had animal ears, too. The idea was interesting. "Aster Phoenix is Edo Phoenix, I assume? And since the other two have the same last name, they are probably Hell Kaiser and Shou."

Juudai nodded, smiling at the thought of meeting an alternate version of Shou. He wondered if Shou would be different and if he would be speaking like Jaden did. Juudai honestly hoped that Shou wouldn't.

And so they kept traveling as they had decided to just trust Amnael. What else was there left for them to do? They had no clue what the riddle meant, but if someone knew more about the place, it would probably be Hell Kaiser and Edo. They'd probably have at least something useful.

It oddly reminded Juudai of the stories that Edo and Hell Kaiser had told hm. During Juudai's reign as Haou, they had lived together and collected information. Perhaps Aster and Zane did the same?

After a while, they had finally reached the March Hare's Manor. It was about the size of the Ra Yellow dorm, which was fairly huge - or so Juudai thought.

It didn't take them long to find Aster, Zane and Syrus because they were actually having a tea party under a tree in front of the house. Apparently, it was a surprisingly serious tea party. Aster and Zane were arguing and Syrus was... sleeping?

Oh, and not to forget. The March Hare was Aster, apparently. His brown ears made it fairy obvious.

"This scene is so familiar," Johan said as this reminded him of the book. He was excitedly looking at the three participants of the tea party. "Juudai, let's go to them."

"Wait, Johan, isn't this a bit weird? An alternate reality that is like a fairy tale?" By now, Juudai had his doubts about how good the idea of coming here had been. He felt his deck pulse in his deck holder, but he ignored it.

"I agree it's weird, but we are trying to save ourselves, our friends and... oh, yeah, Yubel," Johan said, struggling to remember Yubel. That fact bothered him a lot. Why would Juudai's strange selective memory loss affect him aswell?

"Yu.. oh, Yubel, yeah, you're right, we still need to find her card," Juudai muttered, feeling bad for having forgotten once more. Something felt wrong. He was pretty sure that without Johan's presence, he would've forgotten completely. "Let's just go talk to Zane, Aster and Syrus..."

And so they walked to the table where the three were sitting. Immediately, Aster and Zane stopped arguing and looked at them.

"Can we join you?" Johan asked, smiling as he noticed Zane's hat. It looked odd, but Syrus' mouse ears were even weirder. "The March Hare, the Dormouse and the Mad Hatter."

"That's who we are," Zane confirmed, pointing at the two chairs right in front of Johan and Juudai. "Sit down and have some tea. Anyway, where did I stop-"

"Who cares?" Aster replied, being way more impolite than the Edo that Johan and Juudai knew. He seemed to be really annoyed. For a second, Juudai felt like Aster gave him an angry gaze, but he hoped that it'd been his imagination. "If the Supreme King takes over Wonderland, literally everyone will die."

Juudai had just sat down and he'd taken a sip of the already prepared tea (which didn't have growing or shrinking powers, apparently, as Aster and Zane were drinking it with no changes happening to them) when he almost spit it out again. "Haou!? I mean... the Supreme King?! He's in Wonderland?" His knowledge of the English language was enough for him to know that Haou meant 'Supreme King'. But wait... Juudai'd just seen Jaden. He couldn't enter realities where he existed twice. What was going on?

Both Zane and Aster avoided Juudai's gaze for a moment, then Aster opened his mouth again. "Jaden, didn't I tell you about the Supreme King some days ago?" Suddenly, his eyes widened. "You ears...? Where are they?"

Sheepishly, Juudai rubbed his neck. "What if I told you that I am not Jaden?" And that was the complicated part about the alternate reality matter: Explaining why he's here. On the other hand, Juudai doubted that anyone in Wonderland actually cared.

"His name is Juudai," Johan said, drinking some of the tea. He was enjoying it far more than Juudai was, but he knew that was because he knew the book. "My name is Johan."

"So you are lookalikes of Jaden and Jesse?" Zane asked for confirmation, to which Johan and Juudai nodded simultaneously. Zane raised one eyebrow.

Juudai simply raised one arm, revealing his duel disk. If this place was really based off a book, then it probably didn't have Duel Monsters. So a duel disk was the best proof to show he's not an inhabitant of Wonderland. "Look at this. Does that prove it?"

"It does," Aster said with a really interested expression. Biting his lip, he seemed to be thinking about something.

"Good morning... Oh, it's you, Jaden!" Syrus had woken up and was yawning now. Juudai had tried to open his mouth, but he immediately shut it again when he realized that Syrus was asleep again.

"Is he always like that?" Juudai asked, not having expected that personality change.

Zane nodded. "Everyone who lives here has gained animal features and some defining traits for their role in Wonderland. Syrus is the Dormouse, that's why he sleeps all the time." To Juudai, that made sense, somehow. He wondered if there were more of his friends with those animal features, he found it amusing.

"About the Supreme King, anyway... you sure about that?" Juudai carefully asked, trying to give away his panic about it.

"Well, we assume that..." Aster leaned closer, whispering, "...Jaden is the Supreme King and he does not know it yet. The King only acts whenever Jaden is somewhere else." Juudai's eyes widened. If that was true, they were too late already. But why would the Supreme King be here without... without her influence? The name was hard to think about, but it was obvious who she was, anyway.

"That sounds very possible, I think," Johan said, nodding. Of course it did. He knew that the best. Juudai sighed at the memories. They were horrible.

"We think Jesse Anderson is responsible for Jaden turning into the Supreme King," Zane admitted and looked at Johan with a serious expression. Johan didn't flinch, he knew that Zane's words were likely to be true. "Ever since he came to Wonderland, Jaden had been different. So we assume that Jesse has bad influence on Jaden... at least whenever his eyes turn orange."

"Uhm... Does a being called... called Yubel live in Wonderland?" Juudai carefully interrupted, his body slightly shaking. His mind was trying to push any thoughts of Yubel away, yet somehow he'd managed to ask that question. He knew that Yubel wasn't supposed to exist in any of the alternate realities, but the matter about Jesse's eyes turning orange sounded a lot like Yubel.

"Yes, she is who had led Jaden here in the first place. Lately, she is rarely seen anywhere, and if she is, Jesse Anderson accompanies her," Aster explained as he tried to look at Juudai's duel disk that the brunet had put down already.

"I suppose you know something we don't?" Zane asked, giving Juudai a sharp look.

"We've come here from another reality to save Jaden und Jesse," Johan interrupted as he didn't want Juudai to feel even more uncomfortable. "If Jaden and Jesse are evil, then the chance is high that it's Yubel's fault. In fact, if the Supreme King exists in this world, it has to be Jaden. He's the only one who can be the Supreme King."

"Then we have to do something!" Aster shouted, looking at Zane with an angry expression. By now it became obvious why they had been arguing: It was about whether they should interfere with the threat that the Supreme King was.

"We can wait a little longer," Zane said, sighing as he quickly looked at the sleeping Syrus for a moment. Then he smirked. "The Supreme King might be just the perfect opponent for me."

Johan and Juudai gave each other a glance as they knew that Wonderland didn't have Duel Monsters. That left the question of what Zane would fight with.

"What are you guys fighting with around here?" Juudai carefully asked, worried about the answer.

"Guns and swords, obviously," Zane replied with a shrug before he gave Aster a condescending look.

Aster growled a little because he knew that he wouldn't be able to convince Zane to assist him in trying to bring Jaden back in one piece.

"By the way, Johan," Zane suddenly said as he looked at Johan intently. "What makes you be so sure that Jaden is the Supreme King and that Yubel is responsible for this?"

Johan wanted to reply, but in that moment, Juudai's eyes turned golden and a dark aura engulfed them. "Is your question answered with this?" Juudai simply asked. He knew that his aura had caused Aster to feel intimidated, but Zane showed no signs of this and Johan was somewhat... immune to it? Almost shining in the darkness? Juudai blinked twice as his aura faded and his eyes turned back to brown. When he looked at Johan again, the shining was gone.

"So in your reality, this has already happened, huh?" Zane asked, raising one eyebrow while still looking at Johan despite what Juudai had just done. "I'm taking it that you defeated Yubel there?"

"It's a bit complicated," Juudai simply answered as he stood up, sighing. "Where can we find Jesse?"

In response to that, Aster shook Syrus a little, to which the latter woke up. "Huh?"

"Syrus, where did you last see Jesse Anderson?" Zane asked, not bothering to be nice to his little brother. Juudai and Johan were used to it.

"Oh, I think I saw him at the courthouse, he was brought in by the guard," Syrus said, yawning as he was about to fall asleep again. "Serves him right for hanging out with my bro Jaden too much." And with that, he was asleep again.

Johan realized what this meant. "We have to hurry or they'll cut Jesse's head off." Of course, it was quite obvious that, although she was evil in this reality, Yubel would not let Jesse die that easily if she could use him to turn Jaden into the Supreme King.

"One last warning before you go," Aster said, giving Juudai and Johan a slightly sad smile. "Queen Alexis and King Chazz are being controlled by Sartorius, my best friend. Probably, since you're from another reality, you know what I mean, right?"

Johan and Juudai sighed simultaneously. "We do," Juudai said, remembering the trouble he'd had with Saiou again. "So that means we've got Yubel and the Society of Light against us. Greaaaat."

"We'll manage," Johan said in a reassuring voice. In reality, Johan wasn't so sure about that, though. He didn't like the idea of meeting his Yubel-controlled self at all. He'd only heard stories of it and he'd seen his outfit and... that had been more than enough for him. But right now, Juudai's mood was more important. "By the way, Juudai, you can teleport, so..."

"I don't know where the courthouse is, so unless someone who knows the location accompanies us, it won't work," Juudai quickly explained. Last time, the teleport had only worked thanks to Neos. "A map would work, too, although we might crash into a building if we are unlucky."

"We have the Gem Beasts and Neos, it will be fine," Johan said with a smile.

Aster pulled out a map and handed it over to Juudai. "While you're at it already, save Sartorius."

"Sure thing," Juudai said, nodding. He actually didn't worry about the Society of Light as much as he worried about Jesse. He didn't want to face that nightmare of his again.

Grabbing Johan's wrist, Juudai looked at the badly drawn courthouse on the map. As his eyes flashed golden once more, the darkness started to surround him and Johan.

"Thanks for the help, Zane, Aster," Johan said, knowing he might not see them again if things went fine.

"See you," Juudai said as he tightened his grip on Johan's wrist and they disappeared from the place.

Arriving at the courthouse, dizziness struck Juudai as he had expected. The frequent teleporting was clearly something he didn't enjoy, but what he enjoyed even less was the incredible darkness that was all over the place. This was not his doing... or maybe it was? Maybe it was Jaden's doing.

When Juudai struggled to stand upright, he felt Johan's hands stabilizing him. "Thanks, Johan," he simply said, waiting a moment until he recovered enough to keep walking.

The sky was dark and cloudy, reminding Juudai of Dark World a lot... and of pretty much any bad situation he'd ever been in. "Let's hurry."

Johan and Juudai quickly walked into the courthouse, just to hear a bunch of very familiar voices.

"White Rabbit Jaden Yuki, read the accusation!" Alexis, the Queen of Hearts, shouted. She was sitting on her throne next to Chazz, looking down at Jesse, who had been handcuffed and was sitting on a chair, guarded by some guards that looked like weak Duel Monsters.

"Jesse Anderson, you... god damn it, Alexis, Jesse is NOT GUILTY!" Jaden was angrily shouting at Alexis. He was sitting on a chair near Alexis and Chazz.

"He definitely is guilty. Ever since he came to Wonderland, the Supreme King has been here, too." Chazz was visibly annoyed by the whole matter.

"Y'all are gettin' this wrong, really!" Jesse shouted, but Chazz' patience had run out.

"Guilty as charged!" Chazz shouted, and with that, the spirit of the monster Hell Solder appeared right next to Johan, its sword reflecting whatever sunlight was left.

"Off with his head," Alexis commanded. It was then that Johan and Juudai noticed that both of them were wearing completely white clothes. It was indeed the society of light.

"No!" Juudai was about to run to Jesse's rescue when a strong surge of energy threw him back, causing him to fall.

There stood a black-eared rabbit with golden eyes. The Supreme King. Jaden Yuki.

Juudai's eyes widened as he witnessed his very own nightmare happening right in front of his eyes. Watching the Supreme King from the inside was different from actually witnessing the terror that this figure held within it.

"I told you that you better stop that. I will say it only once more. Jesse is not guilty," the Supreme King said. All of the monsters that had surrounded Jesse were gone, but the teal-haired boy had not moved yet.

"So it was Jaden Yuki!" Alexis shouted. She didn't seem to understand the threat that the Supreme King was to her, because she immediately added, "Off with his head!"

The response to that was a surge of dark energy that sent her flying and crashing into the next building, where she turned into light and faded away. It had happened within seconds.

_Just like back then._

"ASUKA!" Juudai screamed, not caring if her name was Alexis in this world or not. Right now, all that he knew was that again, his friends were dying and it was all his fault. The thought made him feel numb. He had faintly noticed the lookalikes of Kenzan, Fubuki and Saiou in the audience. Would they die, too?

Chazz was angry now. Of course he was. No matter what influence he was under, he loved Alexis. "Atticus, Hassleberry! Get Anderson! Kill him!"

The two immediately reacted as they - armed with spears - aimed for Jesse. And to Juudai's and Johan's surprise... the Supreme King was too slow to react because he had just fought off some guards.

"JESSE!" That was the Supreme King's shout. Or was it Jaden's? It was all the same, Juudai and Johan knew that all too well.

But Jesse was unharmed. And at the same time, Atticus and Hassleberry were gone. Along with Jesse's handcuffs and... Chazz.

Suddenly, everything became silent. No screams, no shouts. Nothing.

Juudai suppressed some tears. They were all gone once more. It felt ironic to him. It was the same four persons as back then, but this time it was for a different reason. The reason was the Supreme King. But he was an alternate self of Juudai, anyway. It was his fault.

After what felt like an eternity, Juudai heard voices again. He was facing the ground, too ashamed to look up. He hadn't done anything wrong, yet he felt responsible.

"Give Jesse back," the Supreme King demanded. "Yubel."

"He stole your love from me, I have no reason to give him back, do I?" 'Jesse' laughed. Juudai'd heard that laugh once already. He knew this conversation. It was so oddly familiar.

"I can take him back by force, too," the Supreme King said, the tone of his voice carrying an underlying, deep, endless anger that only Juudai could truly comprehend. The anger that corrupted the heart of a person who was almost about to lose his best friend.

"He would die in the process," 'Jesse' replied, smirking. "Do you want that? After all, I am the one who has led you here and awakened your powers. But I know that the pain you inflict to me is just a sign of your love, Jaden... So I am going to return it by killing this boy." From the ground, 'Jesse' picked up one of the spears that Hassleberry and Atticus had carried before.

"No! Don't do that." The Supreme King tried to maintain his composure, but he did not succeed. He bit his lip and slowly said, "What are your demands?"

"Destroy this entire world," 'Jesse' said with a smile, dropping the spear. "Then there will only be you, me and Jesse left. Isn't that just fine?"

It was not like the Supreme King had another choice anyway. And it was not like he actually cared, anyway. "How do I do it?"

"Oh, you really just need to released all of the power that you hold," 'Jesse' said, walking to the Supreme King's side and grabbing his wrist. "Soon you'll be all mine, Jaden."

The Supreme King's golden eyes seemed to shine when his dark aura suddenly amplified countless times. The sky seemed to curse the world as the thunder clouds unleashed their rage onto the earth and something that looked like dark meteors rained from above.

People died. They had no time to run.

One by one, they turned into light that was too beautiful to for the horrible destruction it represented. And then, close to the throne, Sartorius collapsed as the Light of Destruction left his body... and entered Jesse's. The Supreme King didn't seem to notice, the destruction had already begun.

It was too late.

Less than a meter away from Johan and Juudai, a black meteor crashed in. Johan realized that they had to get out of there, for there was no chance for them to do anything at this point.

This reality was lost. They would either escape or die here. And there was no time.

"Juudai, materialize our monsters," Johan said, shaking Juudai a little to get him back to his senses. However, Juudai gave no response. It had been too shocking for him. Of course, Johan could comprehend it, but this was a situation where they could possibly die. "Juudai, snap out of it!"

No response.

With no other choice left but to act on his own, Johan took out his duel disk and placed Rainbow Dragon in the monster zone. To his surprise, he felt a strange energy inside himself as Rainbow Dragon physically appeared around them, shielding them from falling debris and meteors.

"Rainbow Dragon! I don't care where you take us, but please, get us out of here!"

Johan held Juudai's wrists tightly as he felt Rainbow Dragon open the gate to another reality once more. Without Juudai's help, there was no telling where they would end up next.

But at least they were still alive.

And while they were engulfed in Rainbow Dragon's power, the last thing Johan heard before they left Wonderland was the Cheshire Cat's voice. Amnael's voice.

_"The first Alice was Jaden, the second was Jesse, and the third Alice was both you and Juudai. But it's not like it matters, for the tale has ended already."_

Then Johan lost consciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

"What was Yubel doing back there? I thought she didn't exist in any of the alternate realities!"

_I do not know, but that at least means she's alive._

"And evil! She destroyed Wonderland!"

_She's a part of your soul. Shouldn't you be happy she lives?_

"... I don't know anymore."

At first, the two voices had sounded really far away, but as time passed, Johan was hearing them more clearly, yet he kept his eyes shut. He felt horribly tired and weak, almost as if someone had drained all of his energy at once. He noticed the smell of salt water nearby, but he didn't feel capable of thinking too much about that.

What on earth had happened?

"And what's the matter with Johan's powers? It's not like he should be capable of materializing duel spirits, right?" Juudai was clearly upset and Johan took a while to process the information. He could materialize monsters. Wait... wasn't that something only people like Juudai could do? Johan didn't know why he could, too.

_He is the chosen one of the Gem Beasts, so maybe that's exactly what caused it. When we chose him, he had a strange aura around him._

Rainbow Dragon sounded calm as always. Somewhat, that gave Johan a feeling of relief.

"And why are you only saying that now?! I wouldn't have-" Juudai was getting increasingly louder as he got more upset.

_You would've taken him along anyway, because you had no choice from the beginning._

Rainbow Dragon was right about that, and Juudai knew that all too well. "Yeah. I would've done that... Sorry, Rainbow Dragon. I'm just worried about Johan."

Johan slowly opened his eyes and looked at the scene they had arrived at. They were at a beach and apparently, he was lying on Juudai's Osiris Red Jacket right now.

The beautiful ocean was only a few meters from his feet and Johan slightly wondered what world they had landed in. Were they in an alternate reality? Were they back at home?

"Johan! You're awake!" Juudai - who had been walking in circles until then - sat down next Johan and gave him a worried look. "Are you alright?"

"More or less." Johan slowly moved into a sitting position, earning another worried look from Juudai.

"You've passed out for a day. Don't push yourself," Juudai simply said as he reached for his backpack and pulled out some of the onigiri that Johan had put in earlier. "You really eat a lot of Japanese food, don't you?" He said, chuckling a little before giving Johan the much-needed food.

"Thank you," Johan said before eating the food pretty fast. While he wasn't as fast as Juudai was about eating, he still appreciated food a lot. And in fact, Juudai was right - Johan had eaten a lot of Japanese food ever since he returned to Norway. That was why he had become so good at cooking to begin with.

Juudai ate some onigiri as well, expressing the same happiness about having food as Johan had.

"You haven't eaten until now, have you?" Johan asked, looking at Juudai as he finished his third onigiri.

Juudai shook his head. "I've only woken up twenty minutes ago. I must have lost consciousness while we traveled. Rainbow Dragon has been watching over us."

Rainbow Dragon, who had quietly rested in the sand - invisible to anyone who couldn't see spirits - nodded. We've been quite worried about the two of you.

From the feeling that came from their duel disks that were lying in the sand, Juudai and Johan could tell that the spirits in their decks shared that opinion. Rainbow Dragon disappeared from their vision, signaling that he was resting inside Johan's deck now.

"So, Johan, do you know how you did that?" Juudai asked after a moment of silence, a silence that represented their attempt to calm down after what they had witnessed.

Johan noticed that Juudai seemed really tense - however, that was no surprise to Johan after having seen the state Juudai had been in prior to leaving Wonderland.

"No idea." Johan shook his head. For him, it had been the strangest experience of his life. "You know, there was suddenly that energy and just like that, I was able to call Rainbow Dragon."

"You summoned Sapphire Pegasus with your own power, too," Juudai muttered as he watched the ocean waves that seemed oddly calm for the severity of the situation.

"Don't worry," Johan said, brushing Juudai's worries off as if they were as thin as paper. Johan gave his best friend a genuine smile as he continued: "If I can do something, too, this just means I can protect my family and my friends better."

Juudai had glanced at Johan's everlasting smile, but he quickly averted his gaze and looked at the ocean again. In the distance, he could see a ship approaching. "I don't think it was a good idea to bring you here."

"You wouldn't be able to be here without me anyway, Juudai", Johan reminded him, laughing a bit, yet becoming serious again within seconds. "...I know you won't like to hear this, but we probably will have to fight against Yubel. Your memory and awareness of her seems to be better right now. Is it because we met her?" Of course Johan knew all too well that if the alternate versions of Yubel were evil, the real Yubel might be, as well. But he wasn't afraid. This time, he wouldn't let his body get taken over. Not again. He wouldn't let Juudai fall into the darkness again.

"But that wasn't the Yubel I know," Juudai said, trying to hold in a tear that had made its way to his eye. "She wouldn't do that again, right? She wouldn't."

"If the Light of Destruction is responsible for what has been happening lately, then... it might be possible that it has possessed Yubel again, so-" Johan would've continued speaking, but he was harshly interrupted by Juudai.

"But the Gentle Darkness within me has cleansed her of the waves from the Light of Destruction! Her soul is fused with mine! How could this happen?!" Juudai tried to hold himself from screaming, but the tear that he'd been holding back slowly ran over his cheek and he immediately wiped it away. He looked at Johan, his eyes still watery.

Johan's smile quickly became a very sad one. If he hated one thing, it was when Juudai was sad. Of course Johan had to deal with the frustration of not having been able to prevent the destruction of that other world, too. But the lingering feeling that they would be seeing this more than just once was in the back of Johan's mind and he felt that if Juudai couldn't go on on his own... then that meant it was his turn to protect Juudai.

Juudai had always protected others. Sure, he was courageous, even his name implied it - Johan always considered it amusing how fitting Juudai's surname, Yuuki, was - but there was a limit to everything. The first time Juudai had to witness his friends dying without him being able to prevent it, he had given in to those feelings and killed humans. This time, he'd almost died.

That experience had shown Johan that it was his responsibility to make sure that Juudai survived. "I don't know how it happened," Johan said. "But we have to survive now. We will save our friends. No matter what."

He was sure they would. Although he didn't know how yet... and what the cost would be. But Johan risked his own life for Juudai more than once already, and he didn't mind doing it a thousand times over. That was how his friendship worked.

Suddenly, a sound. A very melodious sound.

Both Juudai and Johan turned to the ocean, trying to spot the source of the sound that was coming closer.

The thing that Juudai had seen in the distance was indeed a ship. But not any ship. A pirate ship. With a red flag. Red flags usually meant the intention to engage in combat. But Juudai had a different feeling.

"This is Jaden. Definitely," he simply said as he shouldered his backpack.

"Because of the flag colour?" Johan asked, chuckling as he did the same as Juudai.

Juudai nodded. "That stupidity could only come from me."

Johan didn't like Juudai's attitude at all, but he chose to keep those thoughts to himself as they waited for the ship to approach. The sound was now close enough to be identified as a song. In fact, the ship would reach the shore in less than 5 minutes.

"They are singing, aren't they?" Juudai muttered to himself as he sighed. "I wish I could do that."

"Let's sing, then," Johan simply suggested with a grin. A grin that was clouded by his worry for Juudai.

"Are you serious?" Juudai looked at his best friend as if the latter had gone mad.

"Better than seeing you cry," Johan simply said, and those words were enough to express all the wory that he had written all over his face anyway.

Juudai sighed again, but that sigh seemed more like relief. "Can't hide anything from my best friend, huh?"

Meanwhile, the song that seemed to have no exact lyrics except for "yo-ho, we're pirates" had stopped.

"Jaden, what song are you even singing?" They heard Jesse shout in the distance.

"I don't know!" Jaden shouted back and he was laughing.

Johan and Juudai could see the people on the ship now. Aside from Jaden and Jesse, there were others that they knew all too well.

It pained Juudai to see the persons whose deaths he'd just witnessed. Yet somehow, he felt relieved, too. At least they were alive, here. Although he didn't know whether they'd stay alive. And he chose to push that thought away.

Syrus was the first to spot Juudai and Johan. "Jesse! Jaden! Can you come here for a minute?!"

"Is it Rainbow Dragon?!" The excitement in Jesse's voice was very noticeable, causing Johan to smile a little.

Of course, he knew that excitement all too well. For a moment, he thought about asking Juudai to materialize Rainbow Dragon, but on the other hand he knew that his best friend was just as worn out as he was.

"No... it's... you?!" Syrus' confusion was pretty audible and Juudai watched as Jesse and Jaden followed Syrus to the front of their pirate ship.

Johan waved with a smile, looking at Jesse and Jaden, yet Juudai remained silent, focusing on Alexis und Chazz who were standing further behind. Their deaths in the other reality bothered him, a lot. He realized that by now, the people of the first alternate reality he'd been in were probably dead as well.

A tear slid down his cheek and before Johan could say anything, Juudai brushed it away and gave his teal-haired friend a sad glance.

"Please, don't say anything," Juudai simply said. Meanwhile he'd already started questioning his own sanity. The issue was simple.

A year ago, he'd become Haou because his friends died. In alternate universes, just seeing Johan's life in danger caused him to risk everyone else's lives without a second thought. He knew that he was dangerous to everyone.

Of course, the darkness within him was under his command now, but he honestly doubted it would stay that way. If it had been possible, he would've left Johan at a safe place until this was over.

But it wasn't that way.

It would never be.

Unconsciously, Juudai's eyes changed colour, turning into bright golden as he waited for the ship to reach the shore. He felt his deck pulse within his deck holder, but he brushed the thought away.

He wordlessly watched as Jaden and Jesse skillfully jumped off the ship, armed with something that looked like daggers, yet none of them seemed to be actually interested in combat.

"Uhm," Johan decided to take the initiative. "You're Jaden and Jesse then?"

"How do you know that?" Jaden and Jesse replied simultaneously.

Johan chuckled softly, feeling all too reminded of himself and Juudai when he watched their alternate selves. A quick glance toward Juudai told him that his best friend agreed, although he didn't seem all that happy about it. "Well, that's a long story..."

Johan and Juudai had decided to just go on board of the ship - they had found out that Sartorius was plotting the destruction of this reality. After all, they had to protect Jesse and Jaden anyway.

But for how long?

Juudai couldn't help but to question that. His memories were filled with holes whenever something related to his last year at Duel Academia came up. Right now, his memories weren't reliable and he didn't know what effect that could have on the powers of the Gentle Darkness.

Another issue was the time. The more he'd thought about it, the more he'd realized that what he and Johan were trying to accomplish would not work. While they may save one reality, thousands of others might fall to ruin. He didn't want to voice these thoughts, though.

He definitely didn't.

It would mean accepting that he was in fact unable to do anything. He'd wondered if the demise of Wonderland had any negative effects on his friends that had died there, but in fact it hadn't.

At least not in this reality.

It was night by now and as far as he knew, Juudai was the only one who was still awake, leaning over the ship's railing and just thinking. Johan had easily explained the situation earlier, but that didn't take away the situation's urgency.

Absent-mindedly, Juudai had reached for his deck holder and - ignoring the jolt of pain that he'd felt when he'd touched it - took his deck out. It was pulsing more than ever, so he searched for the Super Polymerization card within it.

He found it very fast.

It was almost completely black by now. He couldn't even read the card's name by now, making him narrow his eyes. The picture wasn't readable either, and the same applied for the effect.

Super Polymerization held great value to Juudai. It was the only proof that those who had died to fuel its existence ever had existed themselves. It also was the connection between himself and... and...

Juudai shook his head twice, trying to get rid of the headache. It took him a whole minute to grasp the name that actually held central value in his life. Or did it not?

"Yubel," He whispered as if to reassure himself that he hadn't forgotten.

The more he attempted to recall what he'd forgotten, the more his own darkness seemed to block his memories out. Were they really that bad?

"Juudai!" Johan was walking towards him, apparently still awake. Or again awake.

Quickly, Juudai attempted to hide his deck, but he didn't even know why. "Oh, hello, Johan."

"Were you doing some deck building?" Johan cheerfully asked his best friend, cheerful enough for Juudai to not notice the trace of worry within his gaze. "Want some help?"

"I'm done with it already, don't worry," Juudai just said, shrugging as he avoided Johan's gaze. "I'm gonna go sleep now-"

Johan gave up his attempt to be cheerful and instead just raised one eyebrow.

"Juudai, at this rate, you leave me no other choice but to challenge you to a duel," he simply said and in fact, he had his duel disk strapped to his arm already. The way he was standing, he was blocking Juudai's escape route. Of course, he'd known that.

But he also knew that this was for Juudai's own good.

Giving Johan an annoyed expression, Juudai shuffled his deck and put it inside his duel disk. "What are you trying to accomplish?" The brunet asked.

"Remember when Darkness took over the school?" Johan asked as he drew his opening hand, smiling as he spotted two Gem Beasts in there. "I'll go first, draw! I summon the Gem Beast Topaz Tiger in attack mode! Then I set two cards and end my turn."

Juudai stared at his opening hand with a blank expression. What is this? He clearly did not know as his hand had no combinations at all. No Polymerization. No Hane Kuriboh. Nothing like these. But there was Super Polymerization. Why was it there? Even if he could barely see or read it, he knew that this was what it was.

"So, Juudai! Do you remember?" Johan asked. He had a kind of despair within his eyes that Juudai simply failed to notice.

Of course Johan was aware that Juudai was under Darkness' influence.

"Who is Darkness?" Juudai asked, not as fierce as usual as he drew his sixth card. He heard Johan sigh but he ignored it. Something within him told him that Johan was wrong... Wrong with whatever. "I activate the spell card: Pot of Greed! It lets me draw two cards from my deck." With that, Juudai drew another two cards. Still no Polymerization. "I summon Elemental Hero Clayman in defense mode! Then I set one card and end my turn."

"Is that all you've got, Juudai?!" Johan said as he drew. That wasn't a taunt. He was sincerely worried about Juudai. He could tell from the way Juudai dueled. It wasn't like Juudai at all. "I summon Gem Beast Sapphire Pegasus and equip it with the equip spell Gem Release! With this, my Pegasus' attack points rise to 2600! Also, thanks to Sapphire Pegasus' effect, I can call Ruby Carbuncle's gem to my field! Sapphire Calling!"

It was a turn that Juudai had expected. It was also a turn that he couldn't have prevented. His deck did not answer him, and so he just had to defend.

Juudai faintly sensed something sad within Sapphire Pegasus' gaze, but he figured that it was just his imagination.

Or not, since Sapphire Pegasus now spoke to him. "We're all worried about you, Juudai. That's why we have to do this."

Juudai didn't understand it. At all.

"Sapphire Pegasus, attack Clayman!" Johan didn't plan to lose this duel. He knew had to beat some sense into Juudai before even worse things happened. Still he couldn't help but to wonder why he wasn't forgetting Yubel, yet Juudai was.

Juudai watched as his monster was mercilessly destroyed.

"With this, I end my turn." Johan's expression was a sad, yet determined one. For some reason, Juudai had trouble noticing the first part.

And thus, a duel that Yuuki Juudai could not win went on.

The best way to describe Juudai's situation was "bad".

Juudai was clinging to his 400 life points while Johan still had 1500. For the last half hour, Johan had tried to "get him back to normal", but Juudai had no idea what that meant. In fact, he almost wondered if Johan was being controlled.

If so, wasn't it his job to rescue Johan?

_Thinking about it, a rainbow just shows a spectrum of light after all. So maybe, Johan... maybe Johan is a servant to the Light of Destruction?!_

Juudai didn't know what he wanted to do with that horrible thought, but the doubts within him grew more and more. Johan was his best friend! There was no way he would... or was there? Still, Juudai had no time to think it over. After all, all he had to defend himself was Neos currently.

He had gotten rid of the equip spell and of most of Johan's monsters - the only one left was Ruby in his spell and trap card zone - but Juudai knew that Johan would draw Rainbow Dragon soon. The pieces were assembled already.

"My turn! I draw!" Johan's expression showed that he had in fact drawn it. But before playing it, he placed two cards face-down, which didn't surprise Juudai in the slightest - Johan's deck contained 8 monsters of which 7 were not usable currently, so the rest had to be spells and traps. "I have all seven Gem Beasts assembled! Juudai, this is the card that will save you! I special summon the Ultimate Gem God - Rainbow Dragon!"

The light radiating from the dragon hurt Juudai. It didn't surprise him, though. It just validated his newfound theory of Johan being a messenger of the Light of Destruction. He hadn't wanted to voice that thought, but it seemed very real now. "Johan! I won't let you do as you please! Or should I say... Light of Destruction?!"

Juudai did not notice the Darkness that surrounded him. Precisely, he did notice. Of course, that was his darkness. He had no idea what "Darkness" Johan had spoken of, but it definitely had been an attempt to confuse him. "I discard Transcendent Wings to activate the quick spell: Super Polymerization! I fuse Neos and Rainbow Dragon!"

Juudai hadn't used any Polymerization for the whole duel, he hadn't performed any Contact Fusions either. But Super Polymerization had been waiting for him.

Holding up the pitch-black card, he waited for the effect to take place.

Seconds passed.

It did not activate.

"Super De-Polymerization?" Johan asked, looking at Juudai with a blank, shocked expression. "Why is... these wings?"

Juudai had no idea what wings and De-Polymerization Johan was talking about. "What are you talking about? This is Super Polymerization!" Juudai snapped at Johan, looking at his duel disk angrily. "Is it malfunctioning? Let me-" But he was not allowed to talk more as he suddenly started to scream in agony. "My head... it hurts..." Another scream. Juudai felt his knees give in as he struggled to keep standing.

Johan didn't hesitate long and rushed to Juudai's side to support him. He didn't fail to notice the fact that the usual 'force' that radiated from Juudai's body was far weaker than before. He also hadn't failed to notice that the card that Juudai had activated hadn't been Super Polymerization, either. In fact, it had been Super De-Polymerization.

The fact that afterwards, Johan had seen Yubel's wings around Juudai, faintly appearing and then shattering, left only one conclusion.

Juudai had been tricked into defusing his and Yubel's souls.

The monsters around them disappeared and Johan could hear Juudai, not screaming, but... crying?

It was a rare sight, but by no means one that Johan could not understand. It would pain him unbearably if he lost the connection to the Gem Beasts, so Juudai's pain was nothing unexpected to him.

Juudai decided to sit down and lean against one of the ship's doors. Johan sat next to him, putting a comforting arm around Juudai, giving his best friend time to find words.

"This card... Super Depolymerization...?" Juudai murmured, almost too quiet for Johan to understand, but it could be read off Juudai's lips anyway. "Does this mean... Yubel is...?"

Johan quietly nodded. He had noticed that Darkness' darkness had ceased to be around Juudai. "We will get her back."

"But how did this even happen?" Juudai had no idea. He couldn't have, anyway.

Johan winced, pained to say what he'd say now. "You've probably been manipulated by Darkness ever since your journey started. I think the Light of Destruction was involved as well, seeing how it happens to be everywhere."

At the mention of the Light, Juudai shuddered as he realized that he had really thought Johan was a messenger of the Light. "Johan, I... I'm sorry for having doubted you."

He also had not noticed anything at all, in fact. The whole time, he had thought that the Gentle Darkness was blocking out the cries - Yubel's cries. He had thought that Johan's light hurt him because it was the Light of Destruction, but it actually hurt him because Darkness had problems with dealing with Johan's power - wherever it came from.

"Don't worry, it's not like it was your fault. But this is really bothersome then." The teal-haired boy looked around, eyeing the surroundings carefully.

"What is it?" Juudai asked, trying to see what Johan was seeing while putting Super Depolymerization out of his deck.

"I just don't think it's safe to believe that reality has really split. I think Yubel herself is being deceived, too." Johan explained his thoughts, looking at Juudai with a serious expression.

This would be difficult. Yubel was no opponent to joke with.

"You don't think the Light of Destruction has...?" Juudai asked, not daring to say the complete sentence.

Johan nodded. "It's possible. It would explain what happened in Wonderland." He stood up and stretched himself in a preparing manner.

Standing up as well, Juudai looked around once more. "But what makes you think reality hasn't split?"

"Let me ask you something in return: Why would an alternate reality be modeled after a book?" Johan asked, making Juudai's eyes widen.

It suddenly made sense now.

"These realities are constructed from pieces of memories, aren't they?" Juudai slowly said. He still couldn't process everything that was happening. Especially since all of his lost memories had returned. Right now, the incarnation of the Gentle Darkness felt like a fool. A fool who's at the verge of losing everything important to him. Who has lost the person most important to him.

Once more, Johan nodded as he walked a few steps, glad that no one within the ship had woken up. "Yeah, but this doesn't change the fact that our alternate reality counterparts shouldn't die. We don't know what would happen if we let things be like this. But we can't save everyone. I suggest we search for Yubel, she will lead us to the Light of Destruction. Jesse said earlier that she isn't in this reality, we'll have to travel with Rainbow Dragon."

Juudai had no objections to that - he wanted to see Yubel. He so desired to see her again. There was one issue, though. "I don't have enough strength left within me." Ever since he'd used that card, he'd been weak. Too weak to fuel Rainbow Dragon's abilities. Almost as if a part of the power of the Gentle Darkness had faded along with Yubel.

Johan simply grinned in response. "That's what we have me for, isn't it?" Not hesitating, he took Juudai's hand as they both started to glow with that light that did not hurt Juudai anymore.

"Johan, wait, this is dangerous for you," Juudai protested, not wanting to lose his best friend due to excess use of energy. "Let's wait until I recover."

"I don't think we have the time, Juudai," Johan simply replied as Rainbow Dragon materialized around them. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jesse and Jaden watching from behind a door, with Jesse nodding in approval.

"But Johan-" Juudai was getting desperate at this point. Unusual for his usually more calm self, his fear of losing more persons dear to him was bothering him.

"Rainbow Dragon! Take us to the next dimension! Open the gate!"

And everything turned white.

**Author's Note:**

> It's on my FF.net account, so why not here as well? I'm happy about reviews, always, by the way. Any kind of feedback, that is.


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